The Le Rhone 9C

[Admiral_dk]

Nice gear and I believe that you will be very happy that you changed your design here 

Per

[Craig DeShong]

Per, Thanks for the support; also – thanks for those taking the time to stop by.

Since the last post, I’ve been working on the gear cage to support the single, what I’m calling, idler shaft and two gears. 

You saw the rear gear baffle up post a bit, below is the finished front gear baffle.  The gearing sandwiches between the front and rear baffle on the idler shaft you see below.


And a photo of the front baffle mounted to the engine case.

[crueby]

Is that a tiny ball bearing race on the idler shaft in that picture?  I keep having to remind myself how small these parts are - great work!

[wagnmkr]

This is coming along nicely. I get my model engineering satisfaction vicariously through these builds these days and I have to say I thoroughly enjoy them all.

[bent]

Nice descriptions Craig (the backwards idea of the cylinders and timing gears spinning around a fixed crankshaft gear does seem confusing, but your description had me following along), and as usual some interesting and intricate work.  I was out for 10 days on a vacation trip to Germany with SWMBO, looks like you have made good progress in the interim! 
 

[90LX_Notch]

I’m still following along Craig, excellent work.

-Bob

[Craig DeShong]

Chris, Wagnmkr, Ben & Bob; thanks for your responses.  Recovery from the knee joint replacement surgery is proceeding…. S..l..o..w..l..y.  I haven’t ventured out to the shop for over a week now.  I’m so bored that I’ll need to get out there soon or I’ll go batty, probably won’t be too productive for a while.

[Twizseven]

Craig,

Hope you recover from the knee op soon.  My wife has had both of hers done during last 2 years, and I am afraid that according to the consultant mine were due about 5 years ago.  .  Ideally I want to put it off as long as possible, he has also been talking of a shoulder replacement.  This I certainly want to put off, especially when he says "we consider the ability to raise your arm to a position level with your shoulder to be a good result of surgery".  That would b....r up pretty well all my hobbies.

I would be interested to now how easy (and painful) it is to kneel following surgery.  My wife says she can walk way better but kneeling is a no no.  Scar tissue makes it too painful.

Looking forward to seeing the next stages of the Le Rhone.

Colin

[Admiral_dk]

Great to hear that you are in the recovery phase - let hope you get through that as quickly as possible and with a satisfactory result - Best wishes 

Per

[Kim]

Yes, it is hard to stay out of the shop during recovery!  It's important, but it's not fun.

I got some other toys to help pass the time while I was banned from my shop.  I got an Adruino and some sensors and gadgets to play with.  I found it really helped keep me busy which made being out of my shop almost bearable.  It was important to just to be doing something!

Best of luck with the recovery, Craig!

Kim

[Roger B]

Get well soon       

[Craig DeShong]

Thanks for all your responses; and thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Looking back through this thread a bit I realize I haven’t answered Chris’s question regarding the bearing size on the idler shaft.  This is a 1/8th inch ID, ¼ in. OD ball bearing.  Not real small, but not too big either.

Colin: kneeling on the knee is a problem.  I can kneel on the one that was done back in December but it’s very uncomfortable to do so.  I suspect with the right knee padding it could be done, but it’s never going to be like the original knee.

I made the gear you see below before the surgery, just didn’t post till now.  This is the larger gear that runs on the idler shaft.



Post-surgery I find I can get about one hour out in the shop before I need to stop and prop the leg up and let my knee rest.  Over the past few days I’ve worked in a few one hour sessions and the results are seen below. For being one week out of surgery I’m delighted with my recovery, though this was another partial joint replacement as opposed to a full knee joint replacement which would require a slower recovery.

Here is gear “blank” for the small gear that rides on the idler shaft.  I made this yesterday.



Today I cut the gear teeth is a somewhat longer than an hour session; took a good long rest afterwards.



Here you see the two idler gears adjoined and mounted to the idler shaft.



Finally, the gears mounted in the gear cage on the engine.


One last gear needs to be made.  This one uses the crankshaft front extension as a mandrel and rides the crankshaft on a set of bearings.

[Kim]

Glad to hear you're getting shop time, Craig! 

Nice looking gears you made there.  It's super interesting to see the whole thing coming together!

Kim

[bent]

Ahh, I think I see it now.  That last gear to be made is going to drive the cams?  Glad to hear you are up and about, if at reduced speed! 
 

[Admiral_dk]

Glad to see that you are well enough to be back on this amazing project and making progress here too 

Per